BYD has announced that its five-millionth ‘new energy’ vehicle has officially rolled off its production line, with the company hoping to continue its global expansion in coming years.
The occasion was marked by BYD’s Chief, Wang Chaunfu, who celebrated the milestone of becoming the world’s first automaker to produce five million ‘new energy’ vehicles on the 9th of August.
According to the International Energy Agency, a ‘new energy’ vehicle is a term used predominantly in China that refers to plug-in hybrid and fully-electric vehicles.
BYD says that it took the company 13 years to hit its first million, with the three-million-mark tackled 18-months later.
Incredibly, it took BYD just nine months to hit the five million mark after selling 1.86 million new energy vehicles around the globe in 2022.
The company is absolutely steaming along, clocking up 1.5 million sales in the first six-months of 2023, just under 93,000 of which have been sold overseas.
It will come as good news to the Chinese government, who has previously announced goals for its automakers to reach energy consumption figures of 12kWh/100km for electric vehicles and hit 20 per cent of new vehicle sales in the form of a fully electric vehicle by 2025.
Investments in new battery-swapping architecture is also on the cards to help make it easier to swap battery packs and kick-start a new and lucrative recycling industry.
BYD’s Chief, Wang Chuanfu has said that “today marks a historical moment for BYD as we witness our 5 millionth new energy vehicle roll off the production line.”
“On this special occasion, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our customers across the globe for their trust in our products,” Chuanfu added.
